This week's Real Estate stories

Nevada was the fastest growing state in the country during the year that ended July 1, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released this week.

But, as a Wall Street Journal report on the topic pointed out, population growth in some of the fastest growing states -- Nevada included -- is slowing, "reflecting and fueling" the housing slowdown in those states.

While Nevada increased 2.9% in population this year, the state's population increased 3.5% the year before. And during the previous six years, the population increased at least 3% annually.

Meanwhile, Michigan, a state where job losses have plagued local economies, declined in population for the second year in a row. And Louisiana started to rebound from the population loss it suffered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, gaining nearly 50,000 people during the 12 months ending in July. See Census news release.

Read more real-estate news in this week's pages, including the latest report on home prices in major cities and why it may be wise to watch overseas residential markets.

Some booming states may be cooling off in terms of population growth, but there certainly hasn't been a change in overall migration trends during the year: The South and West regions added far more individuals than the Northeast and Midwest.

Amy Hoak, real estate writer

Home prices drop 6.1%

Home prices in 20 major U.S. cities were down 6.1% on average in the past year as of October, according to the Case-Shiller price index released Wednesday by Standard & Poor's. See Economic Report.

More options for homeowners facing foreclosure

A holiday present of sorts came over the transom last week from Andrew Fitzpatrick, a real estate broker in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., who said I didn't go far enough in detailing the options available to homeowners facing foreclosure. See Realty Q&A.

It may pay to keep on eye on overseas residential markets

Some investment analysts such as Bill Gross of Pimco say we're in a recession here in the United States. But overseas it looks like times are booming. And that means foreigners are looking at opportunities here, which in turn poses opportunity for U.S. investors. See Sophisticated Investor.

U.S. mortgage rates move little: Freddie Mac

Mortgage rates stayed flat or moved up slightly this week as bond yields rose, Freddie Mac's chief economist said on Thursday. See Mortgages.

Bush plan leaves out borrowers with option ARMs

The Bush administration is pushing its plan to help subprime borrowers whose loans are due to reset to higher interest rates next year. But left out of the mix are hundreds of thousands of borrowers with good credit who could face sharp increases in their payments. See story from RealEstateJournal.

Fraud seen as a driver in wave of foreclosures

Skyrocketing foreclosures are a testament to how easy it was to borrow from mortgage lenders in recent years. It may also have been easy to steal from them, to judge from a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that federal prosecutors unraveled here in Atlanta. See story from RealEstateJournal.

Slow building of a rescue plan for troubled homeowners

In April, a little-known federal regulator named Sheila Bair floated a proposal at a meeting with mortgage executives: Could the industry freeze adjustable interest rates for needy individuals before they lost their homes? The reaction was scornful, recalls Michael Stevens, senior vice president of regulatory policy at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. "Everyone hated it," he says. "It went nowhere. Within 15 seconds, it was dead." Seven months later, President Bush announced an industry plan to tackle the housing meltdown, under which hundreds of thousands of struggling borrowers might get a five-year freeze on their interest rates. In many ways, it looks a lot like Bair's initial idea. See story from RealEstateJournal.

Reverse mortgages: way out of a bind for older homeowners

Reverse mortgages used to be a way for homeowners to get extra cash during retirement. Now they're also being used for a more-pressing purpose: helping people who are struggling to meet payments on high-interest-rate loans to keep their homes. See story from RealEstateJournal.

Cities across the globe propose large real estate projects

Some of the biggest cities in the world are proposing the most ambitious real-estate projects in a generation, a sign of growing confidence in urban living even as the current financial landscape grows bleaker. See story from RealEstateJournal.

How wizardry amplified the credit crisis

In recent years, as home prices and mortgage lending boomed, bankers found ever-more-clever ways to repackage trillions of dollars in loans, selling them off in slivers to investors around the world. Financiers and regulators figured all the activity would disperse risk, and maybe even make markets safer and stronger. Then along came Norma. Norma CDO I Ltd., as its full name goes, is one of a new breed of mortgage investments created in the waning days of the U.S. housing boom. Instead of spreading the risk of a global home-finance boom, the instruments have magnified and concentrated the effects of the subprime-mortgage bust. See story from RealEstateJournal.

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